184 Proceedings of the 



in no instance, during years of daily handling, did I ever 

 observe the slightest approach at defence by this mode ; 

 motion is comparatively slow ; and it has no adequate defen- 

 sive armour. The animal must seek its food ; but this is 

 generally done without much exposure, for it feeds on slugs, 

 &c, found low in the grass, where, too, from its mode of pro- 

 gression, it is most active and powerful. Sometimes, however, 

 it is found extended as if basking in the sun (probably while 

 incubating, if the phrase can be sanctioned) on sand-beds, or 

 on cultivated ground, helpless, in a great degree, from the 

 want of aids of motion in such situations, and consequently 

 is an open prey to the enemy. But whether in the grass, or 

 thus exposed, it is easily found by the sparrow-hawk (Ac- 

 cipiter fringillaras), its most conspicuous foe, which, at the 

 season of the activity of the reptile, may be frequently ob- 

 served hovering on wing above the sloping banks facing the 

 south, where the animal is most plentiful. When once 

 marked, escape is scarcely possible ; but the provision al- 

 luded to affords considerable immunity from attack. If the 

 bird seize its prey at any point below the cloaca, the reptile 

 has the power of sundering the part with apparent impunity, 

 and escapes ; and if in any way forewarned of danger, the 

 retreat of the animal to the nearest crevice would favour the 

 probability of such a result. Many mutilated specimens are 

 found ; and it is scarcely possible to keep numbers that are 

 subjected to daily examination without being a witness to the 

 act which instinct prompts, and which seems to cause little 

 pain or inconvenience. There are sure grounds for affirming 

 that the " breaking in two " of authors is limited to the tail. 

 If violently seized by the body, the tail is, nevertheless, the 

 part thrown off. When a part of the tail is separated from 

 the animal by its own efforts, there seems to be no laceration 

 of the structures, if the vessels and cellular tissue are excepted. 

 Not a scale is torn. Eight conical processes (four pairs), 

 with interspaces between them, project from each severed 

 part, and each projection consists of one-half of a short muscle 

 which fits or dovetails into the other. The body part has 

 the ball, and the tail part the socket, of the vertebrae. So 



